Publications: Books & Catalogs • Laura Splan

...Splan's innovative oeuvres utilize different artistic media – both analogue and digital – to embody scientific phenomena. Regardless of her medium of choice, Laura Splan succeeds in translating complex scientific concepts into sensory experiences. She transforms research and knowledge into tactile shapes and haptic forms that empowers the Begreifen (understanding) of complicated contexts and intricate interactions on the part of the viewer. She seeks and finds inspiration in traditional techniques that are historically linked with domestic work of women such as lacemaking and embroidery, thereby adding a specific feminist dimension to her work; other sources of inspiration, however, transcend gender-stereotypes and include cutting edge research...in the fields of biology, chemistry, molecular genetics and social sciences...

Till-Holger Borchert, TraumA, Triënnale Brugge Catalog Essay

…As is typical of much of Splan’s oeuvre, the work hovers in a liminal zone between science and art...through elegant, calmly beautiful objects...

Anonda Bell, Past Now Forever, curator's essay in Mirror Mirror exhibition catalog

…Splan’s art does more than communicate or comment on science...by taking the tools and materials of science in imaginative directions that reveal how these technical means might be used in “otherwise” ways...sometimes purely aesthetic, sometimes diversionary or other times provocative, and universally reflective…

Hannah Star Rogers, Otherwise Ways of Knowing: Art & Biology in the work of Laura Splan, essay for Entangled Entities exhibition catalog

…There are so many words that describe the work of Laura Splan – intelligent, beautiful, cohesive, and blissfully poetic. Much like the curiosity that drives both scientists and artists...the simple beauty and crispness of Splan’s work encourage the viewer to discover the multi-layered conceptuality that is the pillar of Entangled Entities...with work that is heavily-researched, technologically driven, conceptually intelligent, and aesthetically beautiful...seemingly disparate subjects merge to create an immersive ‘ambiotic’ gallery environment...moments of surprises and discoveries in an environment of pleasant mundanity further reinforce the similarities between the disciplines of Science and Art…

Michael Dickins, curator's Essay for Entangled Entities exhibition catalog

…This strangeness in Splan’s work results from her deliberate integration of classic fiber-based crafts with medical imagery and materials. Delicate doilies replicate illustrated diagrams of microscopic, often lethal viruses; overscaled latch-hooked pillows mimic the popular antidepressants Prozac, Thorazine, and Zoloft. Similarly, a hand-knit scarf is made from blood-filled medical tubing connected to an IV line in the wearer’s arm, and traditional wallpaper patterns are traced with the artist’s own blood. Each of these beautifully crafted objects is simultaneously perverse and compelling…

Mara Holt Skov, Form Follows Infection, curator's essay in Manufractured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects exhibition catalog

…Laura Splan invites the audience to actively engage with her sculptural installation Host, which has porcelain and 3D-printed objects stereotypical of suburban homes. Doilies, ﬂower petals, and damask patterns lend to the immediate domestic comfort that the artist associates with Southern hospitality. Some of these objects, which pragmatically function in daily life as means for hiding tarnished surfaces on furniture, are stained with blood, sending participants into an emotional tailspin of anxiety and disrupting their sense of security...Splan contributes a refreshing feminine gaze on the topic of HIV and AIDS...and questions our cultural ambivalence towards the human body...

Lisbeth Murray, Compendium: The Interchange of Art and Science

...Splan explores the once-rigid frontiers of the scientific and the artistic, and thus mattertextualises the microbe world through her bio-art. Reinventing the modes of being, knowing, and doing in a post-qualitative research mindset, mattertext becomes an embedded and embodied form of practice in the work of Laura Splan. The artist...opens up new possibilities of looking into the details of what is within and around us in everyday encounters, rather than looking past them as we often tend to do when we are immersed in our so-called unquestionable subjecthood...

Başak Ağın, Going Viral: Chronotopes of Disaster in Film and Visual Media in European Journal of English Studies

...Her uniquely multidimensional art practice highlights connections between old and new technologies, presenting new tactile understanding of materials...Splan’s project also reconnects the animal to its cells, forcing us to consider the physicality of the interspecies research. The conceptual framework allows for more nuanced discussions about genetically engineered antibodies, and their connection to recombinant DNA technology...

Cindy Stockton Moore, Bioart Residency Project Catalog

…it could be argued that "Prozac, Thorazine, Zoloft" (2000) arrived on the cusp of the contemporary DIY movement...Splan’s cheerful Pop sculpture still plays on our desire for comfort, but as mood-altering drugs have become increasingly common, we now read them as iconic objects—like modern-day Campbell’s soup can – whose cultural significance reaches beyond their literal use…

Audrey Mast, curator's essay in Fuzzy Logic exhibition catalog

...Splan's approach to depictions of the body is to fragment it into manageable portions, thus allowing for a much deeper investigation into the ways in which corporeal, spiritual, and emotional imperatives intersect and inform each other. The artist uses the elements of the body—skin, blood, bones, organs, and even human viruses...

David McFadden, curator's essay in Pricked: Extreme Embroidery exhibition catalog

…Totems of the beauty myth, the domestic, and genetic identity merge here strikingly, as Splan suggests the extent to which we attempt, through social convention and scientific knowledge, to embroider identity into place as a fixed and defined thing…

Jessica A. Cooley & Dr. Ann M. Fox, Disability Art, Aesthetics, and Access: Creating Exhibitions in a Liberal Arts Setting in Disability Studies Quarterly

...Laura Splan...employs spare visual forms to convey complex cultural concerns...

Leesa Rittelmann, essay in exhibition catalog for Gone Viral: Medical Science in Contemporary Textile Art

…Today, it is science that has come to be regarded a religion of sorts for secular times, a ‘master narrative’ with claims to truth, and with which to make sense of the world and our place in it. Casting, for instance, emotions in terms of ‘hormone discharges’ such as oxytocin, vasopressin and dopamine instead of in terms of ‘previous experience’ or in terms of ‘being rid of ancestral fears or pre-dispositions,’ science enables us to have a feeling of control over our lives, thereby enhancing a sense of well-being. See for instance "Negligee (Serotonin)" by Laura Splan. The molecular structure of the neurotransmitter serotonin, also known as ‘the happy chemical’ as it contributes to feelings of well-being and happiness, has been machine- embroidered on remnant cosmetic facial peel resembling delicate lace, also translating, in this case happiness, into an item of clothing/textile art…

Armida de la Garza, STEAM at Work: “Translating” Science into Dress in TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture

BIBLIOGRAPHY

PUBLICATIONS

2025 Practices of Looking: An Introduction to Visual Culture, 4th Edition, Marita Sturken/Lisa Cartwright, Oxford University Press

2024 Viral Behaviors: Viruses and Viral Phenomena across Science, Technology, and the Arts, By Roberta Buiani Bloomsbury Visual Arts—Biotechne: Interthinking Art, Science and Design Series

2024 Electric Op, Buffalo AKG Art Museum / Musée d’arts de Nantes, Eds. Jacob Gaboury, Lindsay Caplan, Tina Rivers Ryan, Zsofi Valyi-Nagy, Published by GILES

‍2023 Radical Fiber: Threads Connecting Art and Science, Editor: Rebecca McNamara, Published by D.A.P./Distributed Art Publishers

2023 FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and Technology, Edited by Marta de Menezes and Dalila Honorato, Published by Cultivamos Cultura

2023 Seeing the Unseen: Science and Art, Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art, J. Eisberg/R. Ikeda/M. Padilla/R. Trawick

‍2023 Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Essays by Gwen Allen, Julia Bryan-Wilson, Tavia Nyong’o, Alexis Salas, Mimi Thi Nguyen, Co-published by Brooklyn Museum and Phaidon Press

2023 Posthuman Pathogenesis: Contagion in Literature, Arts, and Media, Edited by Başak Ağın and Şafak Horzum, Routledge

2023 Engaging The Public With Science: Researcher Engagement Program Connects Scientists With Society And Culture, Simons Foundation, Outreach, Education And Engagement (OEE)

‍2023 You Stir the Pot: Recipes for Change, Edited by Victoria Manganiello, Published by Snake Hair

2023 The Archive to Come, by Carla Gannis & Clark Buckner, Published by Telematic Media Arts

2023 Possibles: ISEA 2022, Edited by Pau Alsina, Irma Vilà, Susanna Tesconi, Joan Soler-Adillon, Enric Mor, Published by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya / ISEA

2023 European Journal of English Studies—Going Viral: Chronotopes of Disaster in Film and Visual Media, “Spread the Word: Mattertext as Bio-Art”, by Başak Ağın, Volume 26, Issue 3, Jan 19, 2023

2022 Evigt liv (Life Eternal), Editors: Jan Gradvall and Clara Åhlvik, Published by The Nobel Prize Museum

2022 States of emergency: art in times of pandemic, by Israel Rodríguez Giralt, Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, ES

2022 An enemy like the future, by Ian Alan Paul, Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, ES

2022 Technologies for the celebration of multiple ends, by Paz Peña O., Centre d’Art Santa Mònica, Barcelona, ES

2021 Laura Splan: Entangled Entities, Curator’s Introduction by Michael Dickins, Essay by Hannah Star Rogers, The New Gallery

2021 Bruges Triennial 2021: TraumA, By Till Holger-Borchert, et al., Stichting Kunstboek BVBA

2021 Visualizing the Virus, Curated by Dr. Sria Chatterjee, Basel, CH

2021 Gloves: An Intimate History, by Anne Green, Reaktion Books, Distributed by the University of Chicago Press

2021 Haptic/Somatic, Curator’s Introduction by Patricia Miranda, Buley Library Gallery, Southern Connecticut State University

2021 The New Normal?, by Sophie Fulton, Glasgow, GB

2021 TEXTILE: Cloth and Culture Journal, “STEAM at Work: ‘Translating’ Science into Dress”, by Armida De La Garza, 07 Sep 2021

2021 On the Materiality of Feminist Resistance: Textile Agency Against Sexual Violence and Femicides, "Did she ask you twice?", by Sarah Held, Springer Nature

2020 MuseumsJournal: Corona Issue, Kulturprojekte Berlin, Berlin, DE

2020 In Dialogue, Issue #2, Grizzly Grizzly, Philadelphia, PA

2020 Culture of Contamination, Edited by Tarah Rhoda, SciArt Magazine

2020 E-Squared Magazine, Autumn Issue, No. 5, Edited by Emily A. Dustman

2019 Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Interface Issue #48, Limited Edition, Edited by Giovanni Aloi

2019 Bioart Residency Project, Essay by Cindy Stockton-Moore, University City Science Center (with Integral Molecular & Esther Klein Gallery), Philadelphia, PA

2018 Mirror, Mirror, Edited by Anonda Bell, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University

2018 Material Turn, FOFA Gallery, Montréal, CA

2018 Possible Bodies, Eds. Karla Spiluttini/Korinna Lindinger, Stadtgalerie Lehen, Salzburg, AT

2018 Reading Material, Eds. Susan Messer/Melanie Herzog/Michael Flanagan, Crossman Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater, WI

2017 Dynamic Patterns: Visualizing Landscapes In A Digital Age, By Karen M’Closkey/Keith VanDerSys, Routledge

2016 Objects of Wonder, Eds. Madeline Schwartzman/David Familian, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine, CA

2016 The Routledge Companion to Biology in Art & Architecture, Eds. C. Terranova/M. Tromble, Routledge

2015 Compendium: The Interchange of Art & Science, Eds. Lorrie Fredette/Beth Giacummo, Islip Art Museum, Islip, NY

2014 Re/Presenting HIV/AIDS, Eds. Ann M. Fox/David R. Wessner/Lia Newman/Rosemary Gardner, Van Every/Smith Galleries, Davidson College, Davidson, NC

2014 Disability Studies Quarterly, “Disability Art, Aesthetics, and Access: Creating Exhibitions in a Liberal Arts Setting”, Jessica A. Cooley & Dr. Ann M. Fox, Vol 34, #1

2014 The Art of Tinkering, Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA

2014 Women Artists and the Body, Curatorial Essays by Ferris Olin and Judith K. Brodsky, Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, NJ

2013 Handicraft: Material and Symbolism, Thorsten Sadowsky, Museum Kunst der Westküste, Föhr, DE

2013 Gone Viral: Medical Science and Contemporary Textile Art, by Leesa Rittelmann, Marion Art Gallery, Fredonia, NY

2012 Past is Present: Contemporary Approaches to Historical Decorative Arts & Design, Kristen Miller Zohn, Columbus Museum, Columbus, GA

2012 Thread of Life, Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL

2012 Women’s Studies Quarterly, “Viral”, The Feminist Press, Spring/Summer

2011 Watching Hands, by Louise E. Shaw, David J. Sencer CDC Museum in Association with the Smithsonian Institution, Atlanta, GA

2011 Hoopla: The Art of Unexpected Embroidery, Leanne Prain, Arsenal Pulp Press

2011 Fashion Drawing: Illustration for Fashion Designers, Michele Wesen Bryant, Prentice Hall

2010 Unravelled, Preston Manor, Brighton & Hove, UK

2010 Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, University of Chicago Press, Winter, Cover

2010 Fuzzy Logic, by Audrey Mast/Brandon Anschultz, Des Lee Gallery, St. Louis, MO

2010 Manifold: The Body Divided, by Billy Renkl Trahern Gallery, Clarksville, TN

2009 Handarbeta För En Bättre Värld, Exhibition Catalog, Jönköpings County Museum, Jönköping, SE

2009 Dissolving Views, by Ihnbum Lee, Cheongju International Craft Biennale, Cheongju, KR

2009 Dynamic Equilibrium, by Rachel Seligman, Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady, NY

2008 Manuf®actured: The Conspicuous Transformation of Everyday Objects, Holt Skov/Skov Holt, Chronicle Books

2008 Biological Imperative, Emma Wilcox, Gallery Aferro, Newark, NJ

2008 Specimen: Representing The Natural World, Anonda Bell, Paul Robeson Galleries, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ

2007 Pricked: Extreme Embroidery, David Revere McFadden, Museum of Arts and Design, New York, NY

2007 Evocative Objects: Things We Think With, Ed. Sherry Turkle, “Blue Cheer” by Gail Wight, The MIT Press, p93

2007 Under the Skin, by Lindsay Obermeyer, Translations Gallery, Denver, CO

2007 The Powder Room, Georganne Deen/Christine Wertheim Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica, CA

2006 Sextessense: A Tribute to John Stevens and the SME, CD cover art

2006 Four Freedoms, Robert L. Tillman, Baker Center for the Arts, Allentown, PA

2005 Intelligent Distribution: Artists Respond to Technology, Nathan Hainlein, Sonoma State University Art Gallery, Rohnert Park, CA

2005 SubAnatomy, Chandra Cerrito, Museum of Contemporary Art, Santa Rosa, CA

2005 Surface Design Journal: Machine Embroidery, “Informed Source”, Fall, pp46-47

2005 The Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, “The Potential Decline of Artistic Creativity in the Wake of the Patriot Act: The Case Surrounding Steven Kurtz & the Critical Art Ensemble”, Joyce Lok See Fu, Fall

2005 Pearl Necklace, Issue #4, pp64-65

2005 3rd Floor: A Portable Artspace, Spring, p10

2004 Meat Show, Kara Maria, San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery, CA

2004 New American Talent 19, Jerry Saltz, Arthouse, Austin, TX

2004 New Fangle, Gen Art New Media Art, Herbst Int’l Exhibition Hall, San Francisco, CA

2004 Public Library of Science Medicine Journal, November, Cover

2003 Die Cast Garden: Ground Founds, Zine, Editor: Allyson Shaw

2002 Die Cast Garden: Paraphysics, Zine, Editor: Allyson Shaw

1996 Milky, Zine Issue #6, pp30-31, Editor: De Kwok

1995 Grand Larceny: Reclaiming Stolen Histories, Vol 2, p37

1996 Beehive: Brushes With Greatness, E-Zine Issue #5, Editors: Laura Splan/Allyson Shaw

1995 Beehive: Swallow, Zine Issue #4, Editors: Laura Splan/Allyson Shaw

1994 Beehive: Pornography for Angels, Zine Issue #3, Editors: Laura Splan/Allyson Shaw

1994 Beehive: Bodily Transformation, Zine Issue #2, Editors: Laura Splan/Allyson Shaw

1993 Beehive: …in a temper, Zine Issue #1, Editors: Laura Splan/Allyson Shaw

1991 Creative Crossroads, Editors: Deanne Wells/Heather Wehry, Vol. XII, Issue 2, p19

1991 Creative Crossroads, Editors: Deanne Wells/Heather Wehry, Vol. XII, Issue 1, p18

ESSAYS

2024 Splan, Laura. "GUI/GOOEY: Re-examining technological translations of the biological world". Cambridge Open Engage. Sep 3, 2024

2023 Splan, Laura. “Syndemic Sublime: Rematerializing the Expanded Biotechnological Apparatus in the Age of Remote Intimacy and Immediate Precarity”, Possibles: The Proceedings of the 27th edition of the International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA), Feb 2023

2015 Splan, Laura. “Manifest: The Role of Science in the Studio”, Art Practical: Art, Science, & Wonder, Issue 7.2, Oct 29, 2015